Now that the Olympics have claimed its victor and the Stadium Series business is behind us, its time to shift focus to the NHL playoff chase. On the eve of the trade deadline, the Chicago Blackhawks host the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs entered the contest trailing the Hawks by three points in the standings. To make Tuesday night’s matchup even more meaningful, Colorado also has a game in hand on the defending champs in a tight race atop the Central division between the Avs, Hawks and Blues.

As we sit on March 4, 2014 the Hawks have 20 games remaining in their schedule with the pesky Avs nipping at their heels. While the St Louis Blues began the evening tied with the Hawks at 86 points (St. Louis won 4-2 over Tampa on Tuesday night to climb to 88 points]. This will make for a great finish heading into the playoffs. The bad news coming out of the Madhouse on Madison is that Marian Hossa will be on the shelf for approximately 2-3 weeks with an upper body injury suffered in Saturday night’s affair at Soldier Field. This next stretch without him will be a very tough test as no one can play as good a 200 foot game as Hossa. Brandon Saad started out on the top line Tuesday night as a first-laid plan to replace Hossa alongside Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp for the time being. Continue reading »

The Chicago Blackhawks offered a national audience a dominating performance Saturday night. In a snowy Stadium Series contest against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Hawks used a big night from Jonathan Toews and a strong penalty kill to defeat the Penguins 5-1 at Soldier Field.

First Period-The teams labored in the snow for most of the first few minutes until Simon Despres was called for tripping Marcus Kruger in the fifth minute. Kris Versteeg got the only shot on goal as the Penguins negated the man advantage.

Pittsburgh got a loose puck in front of Corey Crawford in the seventh minute but the Hawks goalie covered it up. Forty seconds later, Ben Smith made a nice pass to Kruger only to have Marc-Andre Fleury made a nice save on Kruger’s shot attempt.Continue reading »

“Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow;” Isaiah 1:18

By Rich Lindbloom

All’s well with the exception of severe sleep deprivation. Five O’clock in the morning comes a wee bit too early after burning the midnight oil. A frequent blogger at The Committed Indian site named 10thMountainFire described my sentiments as I stumbled out of bed yesterday. When asked by another blogger how he was doing he replied, “I’m ok, but the alarm clock isn’t doing to well.” Continue reading »

Corey Crawford recorded a shutout Wednesday night to lead the Chicago Blackhawks to a 2-0 road victory over the Anaheim Ducks. Crawford’s 29-save effort, along with some outstanding penalty killing, allowed Chicago to make goals from Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews hold up against the NHL’s point leader.

First Period-Anaheim came out the aggressors and generated some chances in the opening minutes, though the Hawks gained a power play midway through the period when Kyle Palmieri was called for interference on Kris Versteeg. Nothing came of the opportunity despite a couple of early shots on goal by Versteeg and Brent Seabrook.Continue reading »

The Chicago Blackhawks found themselves down a pair of goals in Vancouver Wednesday night minutes into the second period. Chicago responded with five unanswered goals to snap a four-game skid, rallying to defeat the Canucks 5-2.

First Period-The Canucks got on the board 16 seconds into the game. Ryan Kesler put a backhand attempt on the Hawks net. Chris Higgins gathered in the puck and beat Corey Crawford via the five-hole to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead on the game’s first shift.

A minute later, Niklas Hjalmarsson threw a shot toward the net that floated past Roberto Luongo. The puck struck the crossbar and glanced off of Luongo’s leg. However, Luongo was able to keep the puck from sliding into his net.Continue reading »

After an abysmal week that saw the Hawks go 0-2-1, it’s now time to embark on a 6 game road trip spanning over 12 days and playing some difficult opponents out on the West coast. These are the last six games that the Hawks will play before the Olympic break starting February 9-26. The Hawks are suffering through a mid season slump and what better team to bust this slump then the streaking Calgary Flames. These same Flames gave the Hawks trouble during their last meeting back on November 27th until Patrick Kane threw a backhand over Reto Berra with just 18 seconds left in the 3rd period winning 3-2. The start of this current road trip is also game one of a back to back with a quick visit to Van-city on Wednesday before heading south to enjoy some fun in the sun, with San Jose, LA, Anaheim and Phoenix waiting patiently. Continue reading »

Wednesday marked the first meeting of long time rivals, ex-rivals? The Hawks and Wings hadn’t played one another since Game 7 on the Western Conference semi-finals in late May.

The Hawks came out looking to bury the Wings early but as is their way so often they gave up counter strikes very soon after scoring themselves.

Marian Hossa opened the scoring with his 21st goal of the season at 8:41 of the opening period. Jonathan Toews and Johnny Oduya assisted on the Hossa strike.

Less than a minute after Andrew Shaw cleaned up a second-chance opportunity after a Patrick Kane shot rang off the crossbar to put the Hawks up 2-0 on an inferior opponent, Tomas Tatar scores the first goal for the Wings. Continue reading »

The Chicago Blackhawks were up and at ‘em for an 11:30 a.m. Sunday loop with the Boston Bruins at the United Center.

The Stanley Cup Final rematch was everything the hype suggested it would be. Yet another matchup between the two clubs was too tight to be decided in regulation. It took the shootout to decide the winner as Chicago prevailed 3-2.

First Period-The Hawks came out strong early. Patrick Kane led a 2 on 1 in the second minute but the play was broken up with Brad Marchand got away with a tug on Brandon Saad’s sweater. Bryan Bickell attempted to complete a wraparound that came up short.Continue reading »

As I walked down the stairs at 5am on Friday morning, I took a nervous glance at the two hirsute beasts laying on their mats. Our Wheaten Terriorist had taken a turn for the worse recently, and had a growing mass on her back. The night before we noticed she was having a very difficult time walking, also giving up any interest in food. For you dog lovers out there, it had reached the time where you would offer the dog steak or ice cream, anything to try to get them to eat. Unfortunately, we all seemed to know it was only a matter of days before – pick one – Zoie, Zobo the Hobo, Dumb Blonde, Taco or Bird, would breathe her last. Continue reading »

The Anaheim Ducks are not quacking their way to the top of the NHL standings they are literally steam rolling teams and now have a commanding 6 point lead in first place over all. The only team that is that 6 points back are your Chicago Blackhawks. The Ducks have won 18 of their last 19 games in convincing fashion especially embarrassing their last victims the Vancouver Canucks 9-1. The Hawks last affair was a 3-2 loss to the Avalanche at home on Tuesday. This game will be a determining factor to see how the Hawks match up against an elite team that they will have to prove beatable in order to make their way back to the Cup finals.Continue reading »